Finally knowing the whole truth
by shadowedlives
Summary: Harry and his family read about his adventures when he was at school. Sorry for the bad summary, please read it would be appreciated.
1. Prolouge

**AN:This is my first fan fic so constructive critisism would be greatly appreciated. i know there are alot of these but i have really had this idea in the back of my head, so here is the product of me seeing DH part 2. **

**Disclaimer: i would like to point out here that the characters all belong to J.K Rowling, so all u recognize belongs to her. i am merely dipping in my own spoon to her bowl of soup.**

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><p>It was another normal summer holiday for the little family of five, well as normal as it can get in the Potter household. It was the summer holidays just before little Lily Potter started at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. The family was waiting for the rest of their loving family to show up to start of their usual start of summer party.<p>

"Daddy you said they would be here soon." Lily pouted to her father while they waited in the kitchen of their home.

"Lily-flower, I know what I said. You know your cousins are always causing trouble did you really expect them to be here on time? So while we wait why not help me make some cookies?" Harry responded to his baby girl, he was always going on about how much she looked like her grandmother and mother, her temper was just like her grandmothers.

"Okay daddy, your cookies always taste better than moms anyway." Lily staged whispered to him

"Hey now, don't let your mom hear you say that."

"Don't let mom hear her say what, Harry?" Ginny Potter asked her husband as she walked into the kitchen.

"Err…Lily-flower can you get the chocolate chips for me please, I'm making mom's favorite cookies." Harry said sheepishly

Suddenly they heard voices coming from their living room. "Guys were here!"

"Were in the kitchen!" Lily called. Hugo Weasley walked into the kitchen with his older sister Rose or Rosie, and his parents, Ron and Hermione.

"Yes, Uncle Harry is making cookies! Have I ever told you how much I love your cooking?" Hugo said. The group laughed at little Hugo's antics. Then more voices and laughter were heard in the living room.

"I'm going to guess the rest of the mob is here. OI guys were in the kitchen!" Ron

"I smell cookies!" yelled the incoming family members. George and Angelina Weasley with their kids Fred and Roxanne; Bill and Fleur Weasley with their kids Victorie, Dominique and Louis; Percy and Audrey Weasley with their twin girls Molly and Lucy, and of course Charlie Weasley.

"Harry, you have got to make these more often." Ron said, while he and Hugo ate a third of the cookies.

"Dad, Hugo don't finish them!" yelled Rosie was like her mother, always flowing rules, but she knew when to break them.

"Don't worry sweetie, I've been making them all morning I know how much you all love them."

"Uncle Harry, where are James and Al?" asked the young kids

"You know, Harry I haven't heard a sound from them since breakfast." Ginny

"Don't worry Gin, I'm sure there fine. There with Teddy, I'm sure their just exploring somewhere and are coming back as we speak."

20 minutes later the large family heard the front door slam. "Guys I really think you should have just left them where you found them!" Teddy Lupin screamed, Harry and co. went towards the hall where the new arrivals voices were coming from.

"Awww but Teddy they were just screaming at us to take them." Two voices whined back, they could only be the voices of James and Al

"When Harry find out about this…"

"When Harry finds out about what Teddy? Al, James what's that in your hands?" asked Harry

"Oh well you see Harry, we were in town, and Al and James bought some books." Teddy's hair was turning into 'potter' hair while he was talking, like it always did when he was lying or under-pressure

"Al and James bought books? Okay what are you two up to and why am I not involved?" asked Fred Weasley, he is in Gryffindor with James and is his partner in crime.

"Alright you two, what is so special about these books that you have Teddy worrying about what I'm going to do you two?"

"They're books about you, dad." Al

"Boys didn't I tell you those books are a load of rubbish. You shouldn't have bought them." Harry said

"But dad these are about your years at Hogwarts." James

"What you found books about dad's years at Hogwarts!" Lily ran over to her older brothers and took one of the books in her hands. "Wow, they are!"

"Let me see that Lily." Harry held his hand out for the book his daughter had, while the rest of the family waited for his reaction. "Well I don't know how this happened but they seem to be about my years at school. Where did you find these boys?"

"In a muggle book shop, they were on display in the window; they only caught our attention because the boy on the cover looks like Al." James

"Hmm so what were you planning to do with them?" Ginny

"Oh, we were going to show them to the rest of the cousins, and well read them." Al responded sheepishly

"You know I've always wanted to know what the Golden Trio got up too while we were at school. Why don't we all read them?" Angelina said

"Golden trio?" Ron, Hermione and Harry asked

"Yes it's what you three were known as when you were at school." George

"I guess we can read it, oh man, there in my point of view." Harry sighed he knew he would not be able to talk his family out of reading them now that they found them.

"Alright we'll read outside it's too much of a nice day to waste. I'll take some pumpkin juice and cookies out, will you boys go set up some blankets for us?" Ginny asked her three sons; even if Teddy was just Harry's godson, he had always been more of Harry's first son.

The girls got snacks and drinks for the family while the boys set up some blankets by the big oak trees in the back yard so they were provided with some shade from the hot summer sun.

Once they were all seated Rosie asked, "Uncle Harry, what are the names of the books?"

"Oh well let's see there's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone; Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban; Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

"Wait, that's seven, I thought you said you didn't go to your seventh year?" James

"Oh, then that must talk about what I did to stop the war, son."

"Alright, who wants to read first?" Ginny

"Oh can I read Aunt Ginny?" Rosie

"Sure, here sweetie."

"Figures, Rosie would want to read first." Fred

"Quite Fred you know you want to read these books just as much as the rest of us." Lily

"Alright settle down kids, we haven't even started." Hermione

'**The Boy Who Lived' **read Rosie


	2. The Boy Who Lived

**Disclaimer: All that you recognize belongs to J.K Rowling, i just decided to add in my two cents. **

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><p>'<strong>The Boy Who Lived' <strong>read Rosie

**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, **(I know those names!)** of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. **

"Well you're very welcome. They sound like a bunch of prats." Said Fred

"Fred, watch what you say!" his mother scolded him "Even if it is true." Angelina whispered to Audrey.

**They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills.**

"What's a drill?" asked Charlie, Bill, Percy, and Fleur

"It's a muggle tool used to make holes for construction purposes." Answered Hermione

**He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over the garden fences, spying on the neighbors.**

"They sound –" started Lucy

"Absolutely charming!" finished Molly

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

Ron, Harry and George snorted. Everyone else looked at them funny, so George decided to explain. "Small is not a word you can use for Dudley and if he's a fine boy then I'm head boy." Fred and Roxanne laughed at their dads antics.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.**

"There is nothing wrong with the Potters!" they all yelled.

**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister,**

"That's horrible, why would aunt Tuney pretend Grandma doesn't exist?" Lily asked bewildered, in the years after the war, Harry was able to speak to his family without hostility and his aunt and cousin really did like getting to know his children

**because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish **("Not a word!" said Lily and Roxanne)** as it was possible to be.**

"Good we don't want to be like you!" Al and James yelled

**The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"A child like what?" Ginny whispered

"Gin, a child that can do magic." Harry sighed, he knew some of the things in this book were going to anger his wife and best friend

**When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

"He sounds like a charming child." Fleur said (AN: I can't do her French accent every yet, I'm working on it, so please pretend it's there)

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.**

**At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. "Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar – a cat reading a map.**

"Cats don't read maps, that's it he has lost his mind." James and Fred said

"When did he ever have it?" Lily asked

"Good point Lils." Fred

"Umm a cat could read a map, if it was animagus." Roxanne and Rosie pointed out.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen – then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the life. Mr. Dursley blinked at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive – no **_**looking**_** at the sign; cats couldn't read maps **_**or**_** signs. Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

"Simple minded isn't he." Stated Charlie

"You have no idea." Snorted Harry

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help but notice that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

"Why is everyone being careless?" Rosie interrupted herself

"It must have been _that_ day." Her aunt Audrey told her. The kids shared a look of puzzlement, while the adults shared a meaningful one.

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes – the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing close by. They were whispering excitedly together.**

"Ohh what do you think their talking about?" Fred

"Hmm I don't know mate, it could be anything." James

"Guys it would be nice if we finished the chapter before dinner." Teddy, his hair had finally turned to his favorite shade turquoise.

**Mr. Dursley was enraged to see a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt – these people were obviously collecting for something . . . yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.**

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor, If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. **_**He **_**didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime.**

"They really should have been more careful," Percy said warily, "we really could have been found out." The family just rolled their eyes at him.

**Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.**

"Sounds like a-" Molly started

"truly productive morning." Lucy finished

**He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs**

"Wow, who knew he could do exercise." Al and Hugo said

**and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery.**

"Oh, that makes sense." Al

"Hmm, I wonder what kind of bun he got?" Hugo pondered until Rosie cleared her throat and raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh yeah, sorry sis, continue."

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying. **

"**The Potter's that's right, that's what I heard –"**

"– **yes, their son, Harry – "**

"What about Dad/Uncle Harry?" the kids asked worriedly, Rosie decided to start reading again soon

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead.**

"Yay!" cried James, Fred, Louis, Al, and Hugo, while the men looked happy as well

"Boys, it's a figure of speech! You shouldn't be happy if someone dies no matter how horrible they are do you understand." Their mothers yelled

"We're sorry." They said, not sounding sorry at all.

**Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home phone number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his mustache, thinking . . . no, he was being stupid.**

"So he admits it, good admittance is the first step towards acceptance." Rosie giggled, while Harry, Hermione, and Hugo laughed.

"What's so funny, dad?" James asked.

"It's a muggle thing son, I'm sure Aunt Mione would explain it later if you really wanna know."

**Potter wasn't such an unusual name. he was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew **_**was**_** called Harry. **

"He didn't know your name? What kind of Uncle is that?" asked Hermione

"It's nothing Mione. Rosie please continue." Harry sighed, he knew reading these things were a bad idea

**He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold.**

"Hmm . . . 'My godfather is Harvey Potter, savior of the Wizarding world. No it just doesn't sound right." Teddy said, receiving nods from all the kids, while the parent's eyes twinkled at the kids antics

**There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at the mention of her sister. He didn't blame her – if **_**he'd**_** had a sister like that **(all of their eyes narrowed at that)** . . . but all the same, those people in cloaks . . .**

**He found in a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

"**Sorry,"**

"He knows that word!" was the general out cry

**he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"**

"But, I thought . . . dad, you said you beat Voldemort in 1998." James said, all the kids looked confused as well

"I did, but he was gone for awhile, there was a peaceful time, for a couple of years. This is the first time I 'defeated' him." Harry said heavily, he never really wanted his kids to know what he got into as a kid, mainly so they wouldn't get dangerous ideas. When Harry didn't go on, Rosie decided that she should continue.

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off. **

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination. **

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw – and it didn't improve his mood – was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes. **

"**Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.**

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

"It's Professor McGonagall." Albus stated

"How can you be so sure?" Roxanne asked

"Me and Scorp get fixed with that look all the time." Albus stated proudly

"He's right, Fred, Louis and me have been getting that look for four years." James said while Louis and Fred nodded their heads

**Was this normal cat behavior? Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word ("Won't!"). Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report in the evening news:**

"**And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin.**

"Sounds like he knows something." Bill said

"**Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**

"**Well, Ted,"**

"Ted? Do you think that could be my grandpa?" Teddy asked Victorie

"I don't know Teddy this was a couple years before I was born."

"Yes, your Grandma told me he worked on the Muggle news for awhile." Harry answered. Even if his godson was 21, he acted just like the rest of the kids when it came to finding out things about his late family members.

**said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars!**

"That's so cool!" Lily, Rosie, and Roxanne yelled

**Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early – it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters . . .**

"We're doomed! If he can work it out, anyone can!" George cried out dramatically

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er – Petunia, dear – you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**As he expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

Lily looked down sadly, know that her dad was on speaking terms with his aunt, Lily loved going over to Great Aunt Tuney's to hear stories about her grandma. James and Al put their arms around their little sister, they hated to see her sad.

"**No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

"**Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls . . . shooting stars . . . and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today . . ."**

"_**So?**_**" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

"**Well I just thought . . . maybe . . . it was something to do with . . . you know . . . **_**her**_** crowd."**

"Again with the _her crowed_, can't he say the word wizard?" hissed Hermione and Ginny

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. **("Whipped!" coughed out Fred and Louis)** Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son – he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"**

"**I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly.**

"**What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

"**Harry. Nasty common name, if you ask me."**

"Dad/Uncle Harry's name is awesome!" cried out the children hotly

"**Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed.****While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there.****It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.**

**Was he imagining things. Could all this have anything to do with the Potters. If it did... if it got out that they were related to a pair of – well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

**The Dursleys got into bed. **("Ewww!" cried out Lily and Hugo cried, they were the youngest)** Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr.****Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs.****Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind... He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on – he yawned and turned over - it couldn't affect **_**them**_**...**

"He just had to jinx it didn't he." Hermione mumbled low enough that no one heard her

**How very wrong he was.**

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

"Oh I wonder, what Professor McGonagall is going to do?" asked Albus

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

"Run! The evil cat is going to attack!" yelled out Ron and George they got up to run away but Angelina stunned them both

"You will be staying like that until I think it's best to un-stun you." Angelina told them nodding at Rosie to continue

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots.****His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

"It could it have been anyone else?" Charlie asked

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop. He clicked it again - the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer,**

"Dad don't you have one of those?" Hugo asked Ron, couldn't answer so Hugo turned to his mom

"Yes but it's called a Deluminator. He got it from Dumbledore." Hermione answered for her husband since, he was still stunned

**until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

"**Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"Ha! I knew it!" Al yelled out.

"No one said you didn't Al." giggled Roxanne

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled.**

"**How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

"**My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

"**You'd be stiff you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall. **

"No one said she had to." Ginny whispered to Hermione

"**All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feast and parties on my way here."**

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

"**Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently.****"You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no – even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls . . . shooting stars. . . . Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent – I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"That is sorta true." muttered Harry

"**You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

"That's a long time." Molly and Lucy whispered

"**I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."**

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really **_**has**_** gone, Dumbledore?"**

"No." all the adults said, to the confusion of the kids(An: I just noticed I know Teddy and Victoria aren't kids anymore, but they weren't around when this happened so when I say 'kids' I mean all of the people who didn't fight or were adults during the last battle)

"**It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

"I love those." Lily and Al said

"**A **_**what?**_**"**

"**A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

"Al, you take after your namesake. Lily you were just corrupted by your brother." Teddy said, while James just shook his head at his siblings

"**No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who **_**has**_** gone –"**

"**My dear Professor, surely a sensible person such as yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense – for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: **_**Voldemort.**_**" Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never been frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

"I never really understood why wizards and witches didn't just say his name. I understand they were scared, but even muggles don't allow the people they fear to have that kind of power over them." Hermione said, everyone just looked at each other they didn't have anything to say to that.

"**I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right **_**Voldemort, **_**was frightened of."**

"**You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"He was just to noble to use them." Audrey said, she really looked up to her old Headmaster

"**Only because you're too – well – **_**noble**_** to use them."**

"**It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the **_**rumors**_** that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"**

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.**

"**What they're **_**saying**_**," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up at Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James are – are – that they're – **_**dead."**_

Everyone looked down. The kids finally understood what Aunt Audrey/their mom meant by _that day_.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

"**Lily and James . . . I can't believe it . . . I didn't want to believe it . . . Oh, Albus . . ."**

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know . . . I know . . ." he said heavily. **

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. But – he couldn't. he couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke – and that's why he's gone."**

"Wow, Dad/Uncle Harry. Who knew you were so cool." The kids said in awe. Harry shook his head at the kids.

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

"**It's – it's **_**true?"**_** faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done . . . all the peoples he's killed . . . he couldn't kill a little boy? It's astounding . . . of all the things to stop him . . . but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

"**We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

"I bet he had some guesses." Ron muttered to Harry

"So in other words mate, he knew." Harry said back

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

"**Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me **_**why**_** you're here, of all places?"**

"That's a good question." Lily narrowed her eyes at the book

"**I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

"He can't be serious!" Lily yelled

"No he's Dumbledore, I'm Sirius." James said. Everyone groaned, the joke had become old the third time he used it.

"**You don't mean – you **_**can't**_** mean the people who live **_**here?"**_** cried Professor McGonagall, jumping up to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore – you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people less like us. And they've got this son – I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

"At least McGonagall knows what she's talking about." Angelina hissed

"**It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

"He can't really believe a letter can explain something as important as that!" Fleur looked furious

"**A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand him! He'll be famous – a legend – I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future – there will be books written about Harry – every child in our world will know his name!"**

"Unfortunately." Harry mumbled under his breath

"**Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes – yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

"**Hagrid's bringing him."**

"**You think it – **_**wise**_** – to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"I would trust Hagrid with my life." Charlie, George and the Trio said

"**I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

"**I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to – what was that?" **

"Oh no, what could it be?" Roxanne and Lily fretted while their brothers rolled their eyes at them

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky – and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in of front** **them.**

"Cool, that sounds like the motorcycle Grandpa Weasley keeps trying to put together." Louis yelled

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so **_**wild**_** – long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

"**Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

"**Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir."**

"**No problems, were there?"**

"**No, sir – house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep.**

"Awww!" all the girls cooed, while the guys rolled their eyes, Harry just flushed

**Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

"**Is that where –?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

"**Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**

"Bloody scar." Harry mumbled so his wife and Hermione wouldn't hear

"**Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

"**Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well – give him here, Hagrid – we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

"**Could I – could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

"Sirius would have taken offence to that." Harry whispered to Ron and Hermione

"**Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "you'll wake the Muggles!"**

"**S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it – Lily an' James dead – an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles –"**

"**Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep,**

"I can't believe they left you on a doorstep Harry/Dad/Uncle Harry!" everyone yelled

**took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

"That's not a good thing." Bill, Charlie, and Percy mumbled

"**Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

"**Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I'll be takin' Sirius his bike back. G'night, Professor McGonagall – Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

"**I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

"**Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

"They just left you on a doorstep! In November! When there could have been people who were looking for you!" Lily ranted, she also inherited her mother and Grandmother Lily's temper

"Lily-flower calm down. I'm fine come here." Harry called to his daughter to calm her down. She did as she was told and went over to him where he hugged her and sat her on his lap.

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs.****Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley . . . He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed "voices: "To Harry Potter – the boy who lived!"**

"So that's where you got that nickname!" Fred said

"That's the end of the chapter. Who wants to read next?" Rosie asked

"I will." Roxanne said as she reached over for the book

'**The Vanishing Glass**' read out Roxanne, "Sounds interesting."

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><p><strong>AN: i would like to thank all those who added this to their story alerts, and to those who reviwed that made my day.<strong>


	3. The Vanishing Glass

**Disclaimer: all you recognize belongs to J.K Rowling, i am mearly playing around with her world. enjoy**

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><p>'<strong>The Vanishing Glass<strong>' read out Roxanne, "Sounds interesting."

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same**

"It's been ten years how can anything barely change?" Audrey asked no one in particular

"They are boring people, there's not much else to say, Auntie." Lily answered

**as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed.****Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets **

Everyone lost it at that, it took them a good ten minutes to stop laughing.

– **but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother.****The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"Maybe Dad isn't there anymore." James said

"Do you think that's possible, I mean why start with them if Uncle Harry isn't there anymore?" Rosie asked him

"I was hoping, Rose, you didn't have to pop my bubble." James pouted

**Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

"**Up! Get up! Now!"**

"That's a horrible way to wake up." Al said

"Yea, even Grandma Weasley doesn't well at us to wake up." Louis pointed out

"That's because she just has to start cooking to get us all out of bed." Lily and Roxanne giggled

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

"**Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

Hermione and Ron looked at Harry. "You remember that far back?"

"Yes." Harry motioned for Roxanne to keep reading

**His aunt was back outside the door.**

"**Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

"**Nearly," said Harry.**

"**Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

**Harry groaned.**

"**What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

"He didn't say anything, you cow!" Al and James said

"Boys, I don't care if your Great Aunt is acting like one, you will not use that kind of language." Ginny reprimanded her two sons

"**Nothing, nothing . . ."**

**Dudley's birthday – how could he have forgotten?**

"I wouldn't want to remember either, Harry." Charlie and surprisingly Percy said

**Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider **(Ron and Rose shuddered, Rose inherited her father's fear of spiders)** off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders,**

"Uncle Harry! How on Earth can you be used to spiders!" Rose asked while Ron nodded his head in agreement with his daughter.

Harry just motioned for his niece to keep reading, readying himself for the explosion that would follow the rest of the sentence.

**because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.**

There was a stony silence before. "I'm sorry sweetheart, but would you mind reading that again?" Ginny asked in a deadly whisper so Roxanne just nodded her head and did as she was asked.

**because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.**

"You used to sleep where, Harry?" Ginny asked her husband

"In the cupboard under the stairs, Gin." Harry sighed it wouldn't help to try and lie

"I can't believe those bloody bastards!" everyone yelled

"Calm down, its been years, I really don't care anymore." Harry told them

"Dad, they made you sleep in the cupboard. Why would they do that?" his three children asked him

"Kids I honestly don't know. It's in the past though I forgave them long ago, so let's keep reading shall we, we may never get to Hogwarts if we don't." The rest of the adults looked at each other, how could Harry be such a forgiving person after everything they put him though.

The kids looked at each other all thinking the same thing, they had the coolest Uncle/dad any of them could ask for. After a few seconds Roxanne started reading again

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents.**

"How many presents does one kid need?" All the mom's asked, they couldn't believe someone would spoil their kid that much.

**It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.**

"Why should he get a bike?" Fred asked

Roxanne decided to ignore him.

**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise – unless of course it involved punching somebody.**

"I hope that doesn't mean Uncle Harry." Rose whispered to Lily, she nodded in agreement

**Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry, but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.**

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.**

"It's not because you lived in a cupboard Uncle Harry, Potter boys are naturally small and skinny gits." Louis and Fred said

"Yea dad, HEY!" James and Al said, while everyone else just laughed at them

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.**

"They didn't even get you your own clothes!" Ron and George said, they came from a big family but they didn't always wear hand-me downs

**Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes. **("Sounds just like Al!")** He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose. The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

"You liked it?" Ron and Hermione asked him

"I liked it before because no-body would stare at it everywhere I went." Harry sighed. His kids laughed, they knew how much it bothered their dad that people would stare at his forehead where ever they went.

**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.**

"**In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask questions."**

"They lied about how Grandma and Grandpa died!" Lily was besides herself with rage, she just couldn't see why her Great Aunt Tuney would lie to her dad like that.

"Lily-flower, calm down, Dad said all was forgiven long ago. There's no reason to get mad now." Teddy said, he always knew how to calm down Lily, Al and James pulled her into a hug

_**Don't ask questions**_

"How can you not as questions?" Rosie asked in disbelief you can't learn without questions

– **that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.**

"**Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

"Never going to work." The three Potter boys sighed, Teddy laughed and changed his hair to match his godfathers

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way – all over the place.**

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel – Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

Everyone was laughing again. "Dad why can't you be this funny all the time?" James asked

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

"**Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"Merlin that really is a lot of presents." Angelina, Audrey, and Fleur shook their heads

"**Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."**

"**All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.****Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another **_**two**_** presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? **_**Two**_** more presents. Is that all right?"**

"That's not helping! You're only making him worse!" Audrey and Fleur yelled, Angelina just shook her head not believing how thick this woman was.

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty . . . thirty . . ."**

"He can't even count! Even James can count that far." Rose said

"Yea, even I can count that . . . hey!" James said

"I can't believe you fell for that twice." Louis told him shaking his head

"**Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

"**Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled.**

"**Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

"These people are awful!" Dominique finally said, she was usually very kind and had nice things to say about everyone

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

"**Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap.**

"Dad you shouldn't be happy that someone broke their leg." Lily chastised her dad before her mom and aunts could

"Sorry Lily-flower." Harry sighed, he knew his daughter had him wrapped around her finger but he didn't mind

**Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned."**

"Oh that does sound bad, but you shouldn't have been happy." Lily said

"**Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.**

"**We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

"**Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

"The feeling is very mutual." Harry mumbled

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there – or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

"**What about what's-her-name, your friend – Yvonne?"**

"**On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

"**You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully**

"Sorry Uncle Harry but I really doubt that will work." Dominique sighed, she really didn't like the people her uncle grew up with

**(he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

"**And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

"Dad would never blow up the house. That's something James would do." Lily and Al said

"**I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

"**I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, ". . . and leave him in the car . . . ."**

"He's not a dog! You bloody arse!" Dominique yelled

"Dom, watch your language!" Bill yelled at his daughter

"Sorry dad, but these people are insufferable!" Dom said to her dad, and she waved at Roxanne to keep reading

"**That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone . . . ." **(Dom started to mumble curses and threats under her breath)

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying – it had been years since he'd really cried – but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

"Why that little brat!" Hissed all the girls

"**Dinky Duddydums,**

They all started cracking up again.

**don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

"**I . . . don't . . . want . . . him . . . t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp- spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

"He is such a little brat!" Hissed Rose and Victorie

**Just then, the doorbell rang – "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically – and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

"Of course can't be seen crying in front of your ratty friend." Al rolled his eyes

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life.**

James, Al and Lily looked thoughtful, their dad had a horrible childhood, but he made sure that they always felt loved, even when he had to work late. Teddy also looked thoughtful, his godfather had treated him like a son since he could remember, he never felt un-loved but his 'dad' had felt like that for 10 years of his life.

All four of Harry's children got up and gave him a hug.

**His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

"**I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy – any funny business, anything at all – and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

"They wouldn't really lock you u in that _cupboard_ for that long would they?" Hermione and Ginny asked

"No, he was just full of hot air."

"**I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly . . ."**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.**

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

"That's technically not true." Rose said

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.**

"That's horrible kids can be so cruel." Fleur said (I'm still working on typing out her accent)

"Don't I know it." Harry mumbled

**Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he **_**couldn't**_** explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

"Potter hair strikes back!" Yelled Teddy (who still had potter hair), James and Al

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls) **("Ewww!" cried Lucy and Molly)** – The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

Everyone sighed in relief, they didn't know how much longer Dom would last before she exploded

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.**

"How did that happen?" Asked Fred

"Fred you'd find out if you let me read." Roxanne told him

**Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

"Did you Apparate or fly?" asked James excitedly

"Son, I have no idea. This will just have to stay a mystery." Harry answered

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid- jump.**

"No one is that skinny Harry." Percy said shaking his head

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.**

"Molly, do you get the idea that Vermin likes talking about Uncle Harry?"

"No, Lucy dear, where did you get that idea?"

"Do you guys mind I want to finishes this chapter, I'm hungry." Hugo told them

"**. . . roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.**

"**I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

"Oh man, that was the worst thing you could have said." George said, while everyone just shook their head

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"**

"I'd beg to differ." Rose said

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

"**I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."**

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon**

"What's wrong with cartoons?" Hugo and Rosie asked, they saw a lot of cartoons, when they visited their Grandma and Grandpa Granger

– **they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.**

"That's one of my favorites." Rose, Lily and Hermione said

**It wasn't bad,**

"At least it was good." Mumbled ginny

**either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

"Why weren't you this funny when we were in school?" George asked through his laughs

"I was busy saving it." Harry laughed back

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him. They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum **("Is he five?" Dom asked) **because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.**

"Yes just give Uncle Harry all your brats leftovers!" Dom and Victorie hissed

**Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

Everyone groaned at that.

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can**

"Could it really?" asked Fred Louis and James excitedly

– **but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

"**Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

"**Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles,**

"Leave the snake alone!" Charlie said

**but the snake just snoozed on.**

"**This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself – no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

They all looked at Harry shocked, he was comparing himself to a snake. Harry just smiled sheepishly and motioned for Roxanne to continue

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.**

_**It winked.**_

"It did what?" Hermione asked

"It says it winked Aunt Mione." Roxanne answered

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

"Only you would find it normal. Why would you encourage it?" Ron asked

"I can't remember but weird things where always happening I thought I would go with the flow for once." Harry answered

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:**

"_**I get that all the time."**_

"**I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

"**Where do you come from, anyway." Harry asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**

"**Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see – so you've never been to Brazil."**

"Uncle Harry, you had a conversation with a snake who never saw Brazil?" Rose asked

"Yes I did, Rosie."

"But you're not a Parseltounge, are you?" James asked

"I don't know, I haven't tried speaking to a snake in years." Harry answered calmly. Roxanne shook her head at her uncle and continued reading

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump.****"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T **_**BELIEVE**_** WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

"Waddling? Dad/Uncle Harry the mental images!" Cried the kids

"Was he really that big Harry?" asked Teddy

"Yes."

"**Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.**

"Hey you oversized mutant penguin!" Lucy and Molly yelled

"Don't call him a penguin. It's a horrible insult to penguin's everywhere." Rose told them

"No, you're right Rose."

**Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened – one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

"What happened?" everyone asked cheerfully

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**

"That is so awesome!" everyone yelled

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come . . . . Thanksss, amigo."**

"Hey it's a polite snake." Lily said

"Only you would point that out little sis." James and Al shook their heads fondly

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

"**But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

"Into nonbeing." Rose answered

"Nicely put Rose, that's why you're in Ravenclaw." Harry said

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber.**

"Bloody babies." The boys muttered

**As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

"Little rat why couldn't he just stay quite!" Lily and Teddy yelled

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go – cupboard – stay – no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

"Sure, lock your nephew in the cupboard while you drink." Lucy, Molly and Dom hissed

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

"You do take after your dad, Harry." George said

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died.**

Everyone looked down sadly.

**Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.**

"You remembered that, why didn't you say anything?" Hermione asked

"It never came up Mione." Harry mumbled, he didn't want to tell her he didn't think it would make a very good conversation.

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all.**

Teddy looked down, he couldn't remember his parents either, but his Grandma and Harry always showed him pictures and told him stories while he was growing up along with everyone else who knew his parents. He couldn't believe his godfather knew nothing of his parents though.

**His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were his only family. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

"Bet that made you think you were crazy." Bill said

"You have no idea." Harry said

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"Really kids can be so cruel." The girls sighed

"I know, I'm Harry Potter, kids were always changing their minds on how to view me." Harry told them

"That was the end of the chapter, Uncle Harry do you leave that _place_ I don't think Dom can handle more of their thick headedness." Roxanne told them

"Soon I promise. So who would like to read next?" Harry asked

"Can I read Uncle Harry?" Lucy asked

"Sure Lucy, here you go."

'**The Letters From No One**' read Lucy.

"How can letters be from no one?" Molly asked

"No idea, we could find out if you let Lucy read." Dom told her.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: thank you to those who review, so i've noticed i update pretty fast, but this weekend i'm going camping so i won't post again until maybe tuesday.<strong>


	4. The Letters from No One

**Disclaimer: everything you recognize belongs to J.K Rowling, i am mearly adding in my own two cents.**

* * *

><p>'<strong>The Letters From No One<strong>' read Lucy.

"How can letters be from no one?" Molly asked

"No idea, we could find out if you let Lucy read." Dom told her.

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment.**

"How long was the punishment daddy?" Liliy asked

"Just 'til summer holidays began." Harry answered her and motioned Lucy to keep reading

**By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

"How can they think he's an angel?" Rosie asked

"No idea, but poor Mrs. Figg, she's such a nice old lady." Teddy said

"You've met her?" Asked the rest of the kids

"Of course, she took care of me when Grandma Andromeda and Harry were busy they would leave me with her." Teddy answered

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

"Yes because that makes so much sense." Scoffed Roxanne

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Harry Hunting.**

"Uncle Harry how did you turn out to be such a nice person when you were raise by the biggest bunch of prats I've ever heard of, seriously how did you turn out to be such a good person?" Dom asked her Uncle

"I don't know Dom, I really have no clue, I could have gone either way, but I have a clue, if you still want to know ask me when we've read all the books." Harry answered her

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope.**

"That's right your going to go off to Hogwarts!" Yelled all the kids

**When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school.**

"No you won't! You're going to go to Hogwarts!" Yelled Al and James

**Dudley thought this was very funny.**

"Why?" asked James, Fred and Louis

"Well if you let Lucy read you would know wouldn't you." Molly told them with an eyebrow raised

"**They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"**

"He better not have." Growled Hermione, Ginny and Lily everyone else looked upset as well.

"He didn't." Harry told them

"**No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it – it might be sick." Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

"Why did you – haha – run it's not like he – haha – understood what you said?" George asked him

"I can't remember." Harry said

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

"That poor cake! Hey when do we get lunch I'm starving!" Hugo and Ron said

"Right after this chapter, it's almost lunch time anyway." Answered Ginny and Hermione

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters.**

"I've never been so happy that all we have to wear are plain black robes." Molly and Victorie said shuddering

**They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

"How is that good training?" Rosie asked

"No idea honey." Hermione said

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. **("Must have lived a sad life." Mumbled Dom) **Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

They didn't have that restriction now so it took a good 10 minutes for everyone to settle down

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water.**

"**What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.**

"**Your new school uniform," she said.**

**Harry looked in the bowl again.**

"**Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."**

"Sarcasm won't work on her dad." James and Al said

"**Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

"See," they said

"Al, James no one doubted you." Lily told them

"**I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

"Why do I doubt that?" Audrey and Angelina asked

**Harry seriously doubted this, but thought it best not to argue. He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High – like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

"Maybe, good thing you're going to Hogwarts." Lucy and Molly said

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.**

**They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.**

"**Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

"He's actually going to make his whale of a son do something?" all the dads, except Harry, asked surprised

"**Make Harry get it."**

"Prat."

"**Get the mail, Harry."**

"That makes more sense.' They said

"**Make Dudley get it."**

"Not going to work."

"**Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."**

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and – **_**a letter for Harry**_**.**

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives – he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

**Mr. H. Potter**

**The Cupboard under the Stairs**

**4 Privet Drive**

**Little Whinging**

**Surrey**

"They are always so accurate." Everyone said fondly

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp.**

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H. **

Everyone cheered; inter-house rivalries were now a friendly affair, since the Weasley/Potter family were in almost every house and were friends with everyone.

"**Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.**

"The horror!" yelled George, Fred, Louis and James

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope.**

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard.**

"**Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk . . ."**

"**Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"**

"Why that toe-rag!" Dom yelled

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

"**That's **_**mine**_**!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.**

"You tell him Dad/Uncle Harry!" yelled the kids

"**Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge.**

"Ewww!" yelled all the girls

"**P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness – Vernon!"**

"Oh what a drama queen." Victorie rolled her eyes

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

"We'd all be banned from the Quidditch pitch/Weasleys Wizard Wheeze/Library, if we even dreamed of that." All the kids whispered, well except for Teddy he was an adult after all.

"You bet you would be, you maybe teenagers but that doesn't mean I'm above bending you over my knee." Each mom told her kids

"**I want to read that letter," he said loudly.**

"_**I**_** want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's **_**mine**_**."**

"**Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.**

**Harry didn't move.**

"**I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.**

"There's his temper I was wondering when that would pop up." Ron said

Harry sent a glare at his best friend.

**"Let **_**me**_** see it!" demanded Dudley.**

"**OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor.**

"That's a better place to eavesdrop from anyway." Huffed Al

"**Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address – how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house."**

"Yes because wizards have nothing better to do, than to spy on a bunch of prats." Hissed Dom

"**Watching – spying – might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

"**But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want –"**

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.**

"**No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer . . . Yes, that's best . . . we won't do anything . . . ."**

"**But –"**

"**I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"**

"You can't stamp out magic!" everyone yelled

"ARE THEY STUCK IN THE MIDDLE AGES?" Dom yelled

"Dominique calm down sweetheart. They were stuck there for a while, but they feared wizards for the same reason some purebloods fear Muggles. They didn't know that some wizards didn't cast spells just to hurt them, they feared the wizards that gave us a bad name. Just like wizards fear the muggles that gave muggles a bad name." Harry told her, Dom thought about it and nodded her head at her uncle and motioned for Lucy to keep reading

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.**

"**Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door.**

"You mean to tell me he fit?" Asked the girls

"No, he just his head, but it still took him a while to get out of the door frame." Harry laughed

"**Who's writing to me?"**

"**No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly.****"I have burned it."**

"**It was **_**not**_** a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it."**

"**SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

"I hope it was." Dom muttered

"**Er – yes, Harry – about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking . . . you're really getting a bit big for it **

"He was too big for it since he was 7." Hermione, Ginny, Fleur, Audrey, and Angelina grumbled

**. . . we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom."**

"WAIT THAT TUB OF LARD HAD _TWO _BEDROOMS AND YOU WERE STUCK UNDER THE STAIRS!" Everyone was seething with rage, the people in town wondered where the cannon was. It took them a while until Lucy could start reading again

**"Why?" said Harry.**

"**Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now."**

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbor's dog **("That poor dog!")** ; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been canceled **("Bloody prat!")** ; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

"Well of course they weren't touched Dudley can't read." Muttered Rosie, Hermione, Percy, Molly and Lily

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, "I don't **_**want**_** him in there . . . I **_**need**_** that room . . . make him get out . . . ."**

"Uncle Harry how old is Dudley?" Dom asked

"He was born about a month or so before me." Harry told her

"Then why does he act like he's younger than you?" Don asked perplexed

"I don't know the answer to that."

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof,**

All the kids shuddered imagining their punishments if they ever dared to do that to their parents.

**and he still didn't have his room back. Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.**

**When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive –'"**

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind.**

"Why would you try wrestle something bigger than you?" Al asked

"I wasn't really think about it." Harry answered him sheepishly

**After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.**

"**Go to your cupboard – I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley – go – just go."**

**Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again. And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.**

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.**

**He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first.**

"Sounds like a good plan." Ginny said

"It does, now when will Harry's horrible luck kick in." Hermione and Ron muttred

**His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door – **

"**AAAAARRRGH!"**

"What! What happened?"

"Well if you let me read we could find out!"Lucy snapped, she really wanted to know what screamed

**Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat –something **_**alive**_**!**

"What did he step on!" Asked Rose, Lily, Roxanne, Dom, Molly and Vic

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face.**

"Did you just say that he stepped on Vermin's face?" Molly asked her twin

"Yup," Lucy answered with a grin; everyone started laughing

"Bloody awesome." Rosie yelled

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.**

"**I want –" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes.**

"That's horrible." Lily mumbled, she got up and sat down in her dads lap

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot.**

"**See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't **_**deliver**_** them they'll just give up."**

"**I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."**

"At least one of them has a brain." Muttered Al

"**Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.**

"Wow," they all mumbled

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

"He's lost his mind far worse than before." Said Rosie

"You got that right Rosie."

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor.**

"**Who on earth wants to talk to **_**you**_** this badly." Dudley asked Harry in amazement.**

"Just about everyone in the Wizarding world!"

"That's not true." Harry mumbled

"Yes it is dad." Lily told him

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

"**No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today –"**

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one –**

"Why not get one of the floor?" Rose asked

"I don't know."

"**Out! OUT!"**

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall.****When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

"**That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"**

**He looked so dangerous with half his mustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway.****Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while.**

"Okay, I know he has never had a brain before now. But there is no chance of him getting it back now," James said shaking his head

"**Shake'em off . . . shake'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

"Welcome to Harry's life you brat." Muttered Ginny, Hermione, Fleur, Angelina and Audrey

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering . . . .**

"Wondering what?" James asked

"I can't remember this happened when I was so much younger." Harry sighed

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. **

"That's not a proper meal, it's barley a snake!" Ron and Hugo yelled

**They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.**

"'**Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk."**

"They really want him to read that letter." Molly muttered to Dom

"Well he is the Boy Who Lived, Molly" Dom muttered back

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:**

**Mr. H. Potter**

**Room 17**

**Railview Hotel**

**Cokeworth**

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared.**

"**I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.**

"**Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her. Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage.**

"**Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared.**

"He left you guys locked in the car? What if something bad happened how would you get out?" Ginny fretted

"Well Vermin has to be mad if his baby whale noticed." Louis said

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley sniveled.**

"**It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a **_**television**_**."**

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it **_**was**_** Monday – and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television – then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday. Of course, his birthdays were never exactly fun –**

"Why not? Birthdays are awesome." James said

"Yes they are but not when your me, and you live with the Dursley's." Harry said to his son

"Oh right, sorry dad I forgot."

"It's fine."

**last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.****Still, you weren't eleven every day.**

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

"**Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"**

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine.**

"That's not a good thing."

**One thing was certain, there was no television in there.**

"**Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"**

"I fail to see how that is a good thing." Angelina hissed

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them.**

"**I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"**

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.**

"If only he had slipped –" Molly began

"—and into the water." Finished Lucy

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.**

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas.**

"Those aren't rations either!" Hugo and Ron yelled

**He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up.**

"**Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.**

"Bloody arse." Muttered Dom and Louis

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.**

"You're so pessimistic Harry," Bill shook his head

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

"I should be used to hearing this, but the more the book talks about them the more I dislike them." Dom sighed

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.**

"Wondering why you're cutting it so close to the day you're supposed to responded by?" Lily suggested

"In her home sleeping more likely." James said

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did.**

"No it wouldn't it would kill you dad." Lily rolled her eyes at her father

**Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.**

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?**

"How can you be so calm thinking that?" Roxanne asked

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds . . . twenty . . . ten . . .****nine – maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him – three . . . two . . .****one . . .**

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD/UNCLE HARRY/HARRY!" everyone yelled

**BOOM.**

"What in the name of Merlin was that?" everyone asked

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

"That was the end of the chapter." Lucy said

"Does that mean it's lunch time?" Hugo asked

"Do you only think with your stomach?" Giggled Lily

"No Lily I do not just think with my stomach." Hugo said sticking he tongue out at her

"Yes it's lunch time. I'll go inside and make something, anyone who is willing to help can come on in. Oh and Harry can you set up the tables out here?" Ginny asked

"Sure." So Harry set up the tables while Ginny and Fleur made lunch.

"I can't believe dad had such a bad childhood." Lily sighed

"Yea with the way he acts you think he had the best guardians in the world." Rosie said

"We should do something special on Uncle Harry's birthday." Lucy and Molly whispered

"You two know that we can never surprise dad." Al said

"No, our parents can never surprise Uncle Harry. We've never tried it." Vic said

"She has a point, we can call in favors and everything, let's do it, show him we care, and really appreciate what he does for us all." Dom

"Yea, if I ever need advice Uncle Harry is the first person that comes to mind." Fred said

"Alright so were ganna through dad a surprise party." Teddy said

"Kids, Lunch is ready!" Called Fleur

"Remember it's a surprise." Lily whispered to them.

After a quick lunch, Molly picked up the book. "Anyone mind if I read?"

"No go ahead." Harry told her

'**Keeper of the Keys**' Read out Molly

"I have an idea of who that can be." Al said

* * *

><p><strong>AN: okay so here it is, so i'm going to be starting school in about two weeks, and well i'm going to be a little busy, i sorta left my AP U.S history hw until last minute and i'm going to be a link leader at my school this year (we 'help out' the incoming freshman) and training and freshman orientation is next week so i'm going to try and update as often as i can.<strong>

**i'll be updating sometime this week again, so look forward to that**

**I also want to thank indie101, & ooo a jellybean, for reviweing my story and all of you who have story and author alerted and for those who favorited this story, it means a lot xD**


	5. The Keeper of the Keys

**Disclaimer: I'm getting kinda tired of these, so how 'bout i say this, if i owned this story (and i don't) i would not be doing this, in fact i would be traveling the world with private tutors (and i'm not), so all i'm doing to trying to over come the loss of my obsession(well it's still around but new things aren't going to be coming out anytime soon so . . .)**

* * *

><p>'<strong>Keeper of the Keys<strong>' Read out Molly

"I have an idea of who that can be." Al said

**BOOM.**

Everyone jumped (well except Lucy and Harry) when Molly yelled out.

"Merlin Molly, why did you scream?" Lily

"The letters were all capital, that's how it read." Molly replied

**They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake. "Where's the cannon." he said stupidly.**

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands**

"HE BROUGHT IN A RIFLE!" Hermione screamed

"Yes," Harry mumbled

"What's a rifle?" Charlie asked

"Oh, a rifle is a metal object that shoots out bullets, it's used to hunt animals and in wars by muggles. It's sort of a cross between the Avada Kedavra and the Cruciatus curses." Al answered

"How did you know?" James asked

"James I pick up these things called books." Al rolled his eyes at his brother, because James gripped his heart and fell over in a 'dead-faint' everyone else chuckled at his antics

– **now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

**"Who's there." he shouted. "I warn you – I'm armed!"**

**There was a pause. Then –**

**SMASH!**

Again everyone (with the exception on Lucy and Harry) jumped and glared at Molly, Harry just chuckled, he was glad he lived this once and knew Molly was going to be yelling alot

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.**

"Umm, wat was the chapter title again, Molly?" Roxanne

"Oh it's **'The Keeper of the Keys'**, why?" Molly asked confused

"I know who went to get Uncle Harry." Roxanne answered smiling

"Who?" asked most of the kids, the older ones had figured it out, as did the adults

"Why, it's none other than Hagrid." Roxanne told them, she then motioned Molly to keep reading

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

**The giant**

"Dad, you shouldn't call Hagrid a Giant." Lily

"Lily-flower, I was 11, and he was a very big man, remember I didn't know about magic." Harry answered his daughter

"Oh right," Lily mumbled back, while everyone else just glared at the book.

**squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.**

**"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh. It's not been an easy journey . . ."**

"Typical Hagrid," George shook his head fondly

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.**

**"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.**

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

"You mean he was small—" Lucy started

"—to hide behind his dad?" Molly finished

"Just barley girls," Harry answered his nieces chuckling

**"An' here's Harry!" said the giant.**

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

**"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yet dad, but yeh've got yet mom's eyes."**

"It was nice to hear that the first time, but after awhile it got very repetitive," Harry told no one in particular

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.**

"**I demand that you leave at once, sit!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

**"Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.**

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.**

**"Anyway – Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here — I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

"Don't eat that!" cried James

"Yeah Hagrid is awesome, but his cooking . . ." Al trailed off lamely

"I think he had the house elves make that cake, because it didn't taste that bad," Harry answered his kids

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with **_**Happy Birthday Harry**_** written on it in green icing.**

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

"And you tell me to mind my manners," James mumbled

**The giant chuckled.**

**"True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."**

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm.**

**"What about that tea then, eh." he said, rubbing his hands together.****"I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

"He shouldn't have asked for a drink, but he wouldn't be Hagrid if he had," Audrey said

"You have a point, plus this is far in the past to do anything about," Angelina agreed

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat:**

"How is that possible? How many pockets does that coat have?" Louis questioned

"No idea, but if I had to take a guess, around 207 pockets, but that's just a guess it could be more and it could be less," Al answered

"Why would you guess that?" Lily questioned

"I just think he would have that many pockets," Al answered shrugging

**a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

"I really doubt 'agrid vould offer 'im anyt'ing," Fleur said (AN: okay so here's the first try at Fleur accent, if you could offer pointers I would greatly appreciate it)

**The giant chuckled darkly.**

**"Yet great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."**

"You tell him Hagrid!" Fred said

**He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.**

**"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts – yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.**

**"Er – no," said Harry.**

"Oh my Hagrid is not going to like that," Rosie said, to nods of agreement

**Hagrid looked shocked.**

**"Sorry," Harry said quickly.**

"You really shouldn't apologize for things that aren't your fault Uncle Harry," Dom said

**"**_**Sorry?**_**" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It' s them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents learned it all?"**

**"All what?" asked Harry.**

**"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"**

"Dad what does Hagrid do to them?" Al asked excitedly

"Your just going to have to wait," Harry answered

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut.****The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.**

**"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy – this boy! – knows nothin' abou' — about ANYTHING?"**

"He shouldn't have said it like that, he's making you sound stupid," Lily said shaking her head, while recovering from the scare she received from Molly, she yelled out the last word

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.**

**"I know **_**some**_** things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff."**

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About **_**our**_** world, I mean. **_**Your**_** world. **_**My**_** world. **_**Yer parents' world**_**."**

**"What world?"**

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.**

**"DURSLEY!" he boomed.**

So did Molly, again startling her family

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.**

**"But yeh must know about yet mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're **_**famous**_**. You're **_**famous**_**."**

**"What. My – my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

"He tells you, that _your_ _famous _and you ask about your _parents?_" Bill asked

"I could tell you what I was thinking, but I can't remember," Harry answered

**"Yeh don' know . . . yeh don' know . . ." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.**

**"Yeh don' know what yeh **_**are?**_**" he said finally.**

"You're a magical sparkling fairy that has been cursed to look like a scrawny git," Ron said

"Really? That explains so much," Harry replied his every word dripping in sarcasm punching his best friend in the arm

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.**

**"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sit! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

"You can't _forbid_ Hagrid to do anything," Lily said

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.**

**"You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

**"Kept **_**what**_** from me?" said Harry eagerly.**

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.**

"This man is really dense, does he really think he can _forbid_ Hagrid to do anything," Lily said exasperated

**Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

**"Ah, go boil yet heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry – yer a wizard."**

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.**

**"I'm a **_**what?**_**" gasped Harry.**

"Nice reaction dad," James said

**"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

"Yes finally!" Lucy and Molly exclaimed

"I was wondering when you would get your letter dad," Al said

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. He pulled out the letter and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL **_**of**_** WITCHCRAFT **_**and**_** WIZARDRY **

**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE (**_**Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards**_**)**

"That's different from out letter," James said

"Of course it is, James Dumbledore was headmaster then, for us Professor McGonagall is headmistress," Rosie said rolling her eyes at her cousin

**Dear Mr. Potter,**

**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**

**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.**

**Yours sincerely,**

**Minerva McGonagall**

**Minerva McGonagall,**

_**Deputy Headmistress**_

"Hey that's different too, Professor Noctis is Deputy Headmaster right now," Al said

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"Uncle Harry that's your first question?" Roxanne asked

"Well I didn't know what it meant, I mean I was raised as a muggle, so if I were to give them my answer I expected it to be by post," Harry answered

**"Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl –a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl –**

"He had a _real _owl in his coat?" Lily asked

"Oh I'm sure it was the kids of one of his first two owls, they made a nest and don't want to leave it," Charlie answered

**a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:**

**Dear Professor Dumbledore, Given Harry his letter.**

**Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.**

**Weather's horrible. Hope you're Well.**

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.**

**"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

**"He's not going," he said.**

**Hagrid grunted.**

**"I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.**

**"A what?" said Harry, interested.**

**"A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them.****An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

"Figuratively and literally," Rosie said

**"We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"**

**"You **_**knew?**_**" said Harry. "You **_**knew**_** I'm a – a wizard?"**

**"Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "Knew! Of course we **_**knew**_**! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was. Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that — that **_**school **_**— and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frogspawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was – a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

"I can't believe she said that about her own sister," George said sadly

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

**"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as — as — **_**abnormal **_**— and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

"I really can't believe she just told you how they died like that," Angelina whispered sadly

**Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"**

**"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"**

**"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.**

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.**

"Oh, Hagrid must have been really nervous to have to tell you about it," Charlie said

**"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh – but someone's gotta – yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

**"Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh – mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it . . . ."**

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with – with a person called – but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows –"**

**"Who?"**

**"Well – I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

**"Why not?"**

**"Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went . . . bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was . . ."**

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

**"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.**

**"Nah — can't spell it. All right — **_**Voldemort**_**."**

"I can't believe you got him to actually say the name." Charlie said

**Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this – this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too – some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches . . . terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him – an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of.****Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

**"Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew.****Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before . . . probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.**

**"Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em... maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old.****He came ter yer house an' — an' —"**

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.**

**"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad – knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find – anyway . . .**

**"You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then — an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing — he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a Powerful, evil curse touches yeh — took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even — but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age — the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts — an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."**

Everyone bowed their heads in remembrance of the dead.

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before — and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.**

"You rembered that?" Ginny asked

"Yeah, I did, and before you two asked why didn't I tell you two, simple it never came up," Harry said

**Hagrid was watching him sadly.**

**"Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot . . ."**

**"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

**"Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured — and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion — asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types — just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end —"**

"He's really starting to push it with now," Fred said excitedly

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley — I'm warning you — one more word . . ."**

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.**

**"That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.**

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.**

**"But what happened to Vol–, sorry — I mean, You-Know-Who?"**

"Kinda wish that would have lasted longer," Ron muttered low enough that no one heard him

**"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see...he was gettin' more an' more powerful — why'd he go?**

"**Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.**

**"Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers.****Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry.****There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on — **_**I**_** dunno what it was, no one does — but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."**

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?**

**"Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."**

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled.**

**"Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"**

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it . . . every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry . . . chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach . . . dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back . . . and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it. Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him?**

"You technically didn't set it on him, you set the snake free," Al said

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him.**

**"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard — you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

"Why did he have to be right?" Harry groaned to the sky

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

**"Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish – spell books and wands and –"**

**"If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad.****His name's been down ever since he was born. He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled—"**

"Oh, he's in for it now!" Lily exclaimed gleefully

**"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL To TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.**

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER —" he thundered, "—INSULT — ALBUS — DUMBLEDORE — IN — FRONT — OF — ME!"**

Molly thundered every word into her dad's poor ear

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley – there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

Everyone roared with laughter, it took them a good ten minutes to be calm enough to read again

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.**

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.**

**"Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

"I really thought he should have turned him in to a whale," sighed Harry wistfully

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows.**

**"Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm – er – not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff – one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job—"**

"Way to make him feel special Hagrid," Chuckled Charlie

"**Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.**

**"Oh, well – I was at Hogwarts meself but I – er – got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."**

**"Why were you expelled?"**

"So did you three find out?" Angelina asked the trio

"What makes you think we did?" Hermione asked

"You're the Golden Trio, you found out a lot of things you weren't supposed to know," George said

"Well your just going to wait like everyone else to get your answer," Harry said

**"It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry.**

**"You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' dormice in one o' the pockets.".**

"That's the end of the chapter," Molly said

"Okay who's next?" Harry questioned

"Can I read Dad?" James asked

"Oh so you can read James?" Rosie asked him, and James did the mature thing and stuck his tongue out at her.

'**DIAGON ALLEY**' read out James

"Finally we get away from those horrid people," Audrey murmured to Fleur

**AN: i know, i know i should have updated sooner, but you see, wednesday i took a break, thursday i worked on hw, and picked my mom up from the airport(she's visiting from mex), friday i did hw and hung out with my mom(but i was working on this through that time) saturday i was tortu- i mean taken shopping, went to a b-day party and went to a show with my friend(i wont call it a concert because it wasn't) so there those r my lame excuses forgive me .**

**alright, starting tuesday i have to be a school for some time to have traning, expect the new chapter friday, but no promises, then the week after i start school wednesday . . . oh school i only go cuz if i didn't i wouldn't see my friends ., oh enough about that . . .**

**Okay so i'm going to stop talking now, so again i'm sorry . . . could you guys forgive me? . . . no? . . . Okay:( . . . i'm just ganna leave this plate of brownies here . . . alright until i update again :)**


	6. Diagon Alley

A/N: I do not own, I'd have made more books by now and not have killed Fred, Tonks, Lupin, and Sirius

'**DIAGON ALLEY**' read out James

"Finally we get away from those horrid people," Audrey murmured to Fleur

**Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight.**

**"It was a dream, he told himself firmly."I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard." **

"That's horrible! You shouldn't be thinking that was all a dream!" Cried out Dom

"It's fine it happen years ago I'm over it sweet-heart, we are on better terms." Harry

"He's so bloody forgiving!" Ginny mumbled to Hermione and Ron

"He's just noble." Hermione mumbled back

**There was suddenly a loud tapping noise.**

**And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door, Harry thought, his heart sinking. But he still didn't open his eyes. It had been such a good dream.**

"Who knew our 'Hero' father could be so pessimistic," James whispered to Al and Lily

"I know, who knew," Lily whispered back

**Tap. Tap. Tap.**

**"All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm getting up." He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa, and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.**

**Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him.**

"A happy balloon what's that?" Louis answered

"No idea, I just felt very happy," Harry shrugged

**He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered onto the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.**

**"Don't do that." Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat.**

**"Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl."**

"Your supposed to pay they owl Uncle Harry, have you been living under a rock?" Hugo asked

"No I was living on a farm," Harry told him

**"Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa.**

**"What?"**

**"He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets." Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing but pockets - bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags . . . finally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.**

**"Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.**

**"Knuts?"**

"The small bronze ones, gosh dad, how far away from civilization was this farm?" Lily asked

"Sweety, it was very far away, I didn't even know about Quidditch." Answered her father

**"The little bronze ones." Harry counted out five little bronze coins, and the owl held out his leg so Harry could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then he flew off through the open window.**

**Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up, and stretched.**

"If he was getting up, why didn't he just pay the owl instead of being lazy?" Rosie asked

"I asked him later, he said it was so I could be a little used to the money." Harry answered her

**"Best be off, Harry, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school." Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something that made him feel as though the happy balloon inside him had got a puncture.**

"No, you just got that balloon, that's just unfair." Louis said

**"Um - Hagrid."**

**"Mm." said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.**

**"I haven't got any money – and you heard Uncle Vernon last night . . . he won't pay for me to go and learn magic."**

**"Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything."**

**"But if their house was destroyed –"**

"Okay, dad thank Merlin you got off that farm, I mean you really don't know anything." James

"Yes, I know thank Merlin I got off that horrid farm." Harry agreed

**"They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold – an' I wouldn' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."**

**"Wizards have banks?"**

"Harry we aren't uncivilized people, of course we have banks." Bill said

"I know Bill this happened a long time ago." Harry laughed

**"Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins." Harry dropped the bit of sausage he was holding.**

**"Goblins."**

**"Yeah – so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that.**

"Yes, you'd have to be very mad to try and rob Gringotts, right Harry, Ron, and Hermione?" Bill

"You would be very mad to try and rob it, of course so kids it's a very bad idea." Hermione said trying to surpress a smirk

"We know aunt Mione, even Louis, James and I wouldn't try it." Fred said, feeling totally lost when all the adults started chuckling

**Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter keep safe – 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you gettin' things from Gringotts – knows he can trust me, see.****Got everythin'. Come on, then."**

**Harry followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.**

**"How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat.**

**"Flew," said Hagrid.**

"Did Hadrid just say that he _flew_ to the little island?" Dom asked

"Yes indeed he did." Ron answered

"I just can't imagine him flying." Roxanne

"Yea well neither can we, so moving on yes?" James continued reading

**"**_**Flew**_**?"**

**"Yeah – but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh." They settled down in the boat, Harry still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying.**

**"Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter – er – speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts."**

**"Of course not," said Harry, eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat, and they sped off toward land.**

**"Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.**

"Because dad, it's run by goblins and they have magic wizards don't." Albus answered

**"Spells – enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guardin' the highsecurity vaults.**

"I hope they don't that's just animal cruelty." Lily and Roxanne said

**And then yeh gotta find yer way – Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat." Harry sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the Daily Prophet. Harry had learned from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, he'd never had so many questions in his life.**

**"Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.******

**"There's a Ministry of Magic?" Harry asked, before he could stop himself.**

**"'Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one. So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."**

**"But what does a Ministry of Magic do?"**

**"Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."**

"They do a bit more than that." Percy said

**"Why?"**

**"Why. Blimey, Harry, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone." At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street.**

**Passersby stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. Harry couldn't blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that, Harry. Things these Muggles dream up, eh." "Hagrid," said Harry, panting a bit as he ran to keep up, "did you say there are dragons at Gringotts." "Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon." "You'd like one." "Wanted one ever since I was a kid – here we go." They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand "Muggle money," as he called it, gave the bills to Harry so he could buy their tickets.**

"He should have tried a little to not stand out as much." Rosie said

"Yes, but Hagrid is Hagrid, he never changes." Albus said

"And he's just awesome the way he is." James added on

**People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.**

"Umm, what was he knitting?" Lucy asked

"It's obvious Lucy, it was a circus tent." Molly answered earning her a glare from her twin

**"Still got yer letter, Harry?" he asked as he counted stitches. Harry took the parchment envelope out of his pocket.**

**"Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need." Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before, and read:**

**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY UNIFORM**

**First-year students will require:**

**Three sets of plain work robes (black)**

"At least it isn't anything like Dudley's uniform." Roxanne and Dom shuddered

**One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear**

"We never wear those!" Louis said

"They do come in handy when you need to put out a fire though." Harry said remembering the charms class he had to put out a feather

**3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)**

**4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings) Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags**

**COURSE BOOKS All students should have a copy of each of the following:**

**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1) by Miranda Goshawk**

**A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot**

**Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling**

**A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emetic Switch**

**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore**

**Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger**

**Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander**

"Isn't that a relative of Aunt Luna's husband?" Rosie asked

"Hmm, I think it was a grandfather or maybe an uncle I'm not sure." Answered Lily

**The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble**

**OTHER EQUIPMENT **

**Wand**

**cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)**

**set glass or crystal phials**

**telescope**

**set brass scales **

**Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad**

**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS**

"An awful rule that is." Albus said earning some nods from the Quidditch enthusiasts

"Yes, but not everyone can afford their own broom stick, so it's a bit unfair of that rule wasn't there." Dom said

**"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.**

**"If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid.**

**Harry had never been to London before.**

"You had never gone to London before?" Hermione asked

"No, the only places I have seen, are what's most likely described in this book." Harry answered

"Next chance we get, we're spending the day in London." Hermione said

**Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground, and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.**

**"I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he said as they climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops.**

**Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all Harry had to do was keep close behind him. They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand. This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them. Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks. Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up. If Harry hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humor, he might have thought so; yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid had told him so far was unbelievable, Harry couldn't help trusting him.**

"I'm guessing that's why more or less they sent Hagrid, no one cannot trust him" Molly said

**"This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place." It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub.**

"You shouldn't insult a famous place uncle Harry." Fred said

"Why not Fred?" Harry asked

"Because your famous, so it's sorta like insulting yourself." Fred answered matter of factly, Harry shook his head, he shouldn't have asked

**If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it.**

"They can't, it has muggle repelling charms." Victorie answered

**Before he could mention this, Hagrid had steered him inside.**

**For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut. The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid."**

**"Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping his great hand on Harry's shoulder and making Harry's knees buckle.**

"He fed me to the wolves' right then." Harry said

"Oh it can't have been that bad." Charlie said

"Just listen." Was all Harry answered

**"Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry, "is this – can this be –." The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.**

**"Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry Potter . . . what an honor." He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.**

**"Welcome back, Mr. Potter, welcome back." Harry didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at him. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out.**

**Hagrid was beaming.**

**Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry found himself shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.**

**"Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."**

**"So proud, Mr. Potter, I'm just so proud."**

**"Always wanted to shake your hand – I'm all of a flutter."**

**"Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."**

**"I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop."**

**"He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that. He remembers me!" Harry shook hands again and again – Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.**

"Okay so it could have been that bad." Charlie said

**A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.**

Harry, Ron and Hermione narrowed their eyes having a pretty good idea of who it was.

**"Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts." "P-P-Potter," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Harry's hand, "c-can't t-tell you how p- pleased I am to meet you."**

**"What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"**

"Please tell me you didn't have him teaching you an important class." Dom begged

**"D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts,"**

Dom groaned it seems it was true that through her aunt and uncles school years that teachers had been terrible.

**muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it. "N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potter." He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose. I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.**

**But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep Harry to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all. At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble.**

**"Must get on – lots ter buy. Come on, Harry." Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time, and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds.**

**Hagrid grinned at Harry.**

**"Told yeh, didn't I. Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh – mind you, he's usually tremblin'."**

**"Is he always that nervous?"**

**"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some firsthand experience . . . . They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag – never been the same since.****Scared of the students, scared of his own subject now, where's me umbrella." Vampires. Hags. Harry's head was swimming. Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the trash can.**

"Uncle Harry, I didn't know you could swim without a body." Louis said

Harry ignored him and motioned for James to keep reading

**"Three up . . . two across," he muttered, "Right, stand back, Harry." He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.**

**The brick he had touched quivered – it wriggled – in the middle, a small hole appeared – it grew wider and wider – a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.**

**"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."**

"Yay!"

**He grinned at Harry's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall.**

**The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop.**

**Cauldrons – All Sizes – Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver – Self-Stirring – Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them.**

"Never get a self-stirring or collapsible, they can't handle very strong potions." George said

"Speaking from experience?" Asked Ron

"Yes." George said, and that was all he said

**"Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first." Harry wished he had about eight more eyes. He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad . . . ."**

**A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium – Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of about Harry's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. **

**"Look," Harry heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand – fastest ever –"**

"Not anymore, there's the Phoenix500 now." James said, giving his mother a pleading glance, he wanted that broom for Christmas

**There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon . . . .**

**"Gringotts," said Hagrid.**

**They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was - "Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps toward him. The goblin was about a head shorter than Harry.**

**He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:**

**Enter, stranger, but take heed**

**Of what awaits the sin of greed,**

**For those who take, but do not earn,**

**Must pay most dearly in their turn.**

**So if you seek beneath our floors**

**A treasure that was never yours,**

**Thief, you have been warned, beware**

**Of finding more than treasure there.**

"See there's a loop-hole there Mione." Harry muttered to Hermione

"Yes but it still doesn't make it right, and doesn't mean we want our kids trying to do the same thing." She muttered back

**"Like I said, Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid.**

Bill, Fleur, Percy, George, Ginny and Charlie shoot the Trio a look, quickly do the others wouldn't notice.

**A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses.**

**There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry made for the counter.**

**"Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter's safe."**

**"You have his key, Sir?"**

**"Got it here somewhere,"**

"How did Hagrid get the key?" Bill asked

"No idea." Harry answered him

**said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. The goblin wrinkled his nose. Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals.**

**"Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key.**

**The goblin looked at it closely.**

**"That seems to be in order."**

**"An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."**

"Hagrid should have known better than to say that in front of you. I heard both your parents were extremely curious." Angelina said

**The goblin read the letter carefully.**

**"Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have Someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!" Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets, he and Harry followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall.**

**"What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked.**

**"Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that.**

**Griphook held the door open for them. Harry, who had expected more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in – Hagrid with some difficulty – and were off.**

**At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible. The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering.**

**Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late – they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.**

**I never know," Harry called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"**

**"Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid. "An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick." He did look very green,**

"Poor Hagrid." Dom said

**and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling.**

**Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, Harry gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.**

**"All yours," smiled Hagrid.**

**All Harry's – it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking.**

The mood got slightly tense, the Dursleys were still a sore subject for everyone.

**How often had they complained how much Harry cost them to keep. And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London.**

**Hagrid helped Harry pile some of it into a bag.**

**"The gold ones are Galleons," he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh." He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"**

**"One speed only," said Griphook.**

**They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom, but Hagrid groaned and pulled him back by the scruff of his neck.**

**Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.**

**"Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.**

"That's so cool!" Lily shouted

**"If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.**

"That on the other hand is not so cool." Said Hugo

**"How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.**

**"About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin.**

"That's a goblin for you." Bill said

**Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, Harry was sure, and he leaned forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least – but at first he thought it was empty.**

"That's rather disappointing." Said Fred

"It does say 'at first he thought', so there must be something there." Roxanne told her brother

**Then he noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor. Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was, but knew better than to ask.**

**"Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.**

**One wild cart ride later they stood blinking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money.**

"Don't spend it all in one go, Uncle Harry." Chastised Molly

"I certainly won't Molly." Harry replied, causing Molly to blush she forgot her uncle was around.

**He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he'd had in his whole life – more money than even Dudley had ever had.**

**"Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, Harry, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron. I hate them Gringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick, so Harry entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.**

**Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.**

**"Hogwarts, dear." she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here – another young man being fitted up just now, in fact. " In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face**

"Sounds like Scorp, would that be his dad?" Al asked

**was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him) slipped a long robe over his head, and began to pin it to the right length.**

**"Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too."**

**"Yes," said Harry.**

**"My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands,"**

"That won't do any good, the wand chooses the wizard, I don't think this person can be related to Scorp." Rose said

**said the boy. He had a bored, drawling voice. "Then I'm going to drag them off to took at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."**

"He defiantly isn't related to Scorp, he's so stuck up." Lily said

**Harry was strongly reminded of Dudley.**

**"Have you got your own broom?" the boy went on.**

**"No," said Harry.**

**"Play Quidditch at all?"**

**"No," Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.**

"Those were dark times." Harry said shaking his head

**"I do – Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"**

"No one truly knows they can think the know but the sorting hat may decide to put you somewhere else." Rosie said, liking this person less and less

**"No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.**

**"Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been – imagine being in Hufflepuff,**

"There's nothing wrong with any of the houses!" Dom shouted, out of all the kids she was friends with many people from the different houses

**I think I'd leave, wouldn't you."**

**"Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting**

**"I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in.**

"Ice cream, sounds like a nice treat right about know, don't you think?" Hugo asked

"Yes it does son, well get some after the chapter." Ron told his son

**"That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't.**

**"He works at Hogwarts."**

**"Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he."**

"He is not, Hagrid is one of the best people at Hogwarts its not Hogwarts without him." James said

**"He's the gamekeeper," said Harry. He was liking the boy less and less every second.**

**"Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of savage – lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."**

**"I think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly.**

**"Do you." said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you. Where are your parents." **

**"They're dead," said Harry shortly. He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy.**

**"Oh, sorry," said the other,. not sounding sorry at all. "But they were our kind, weren't they."**

"He has less tact than Louis here." Lucy said

"Hey don't compare me to this boy." Louis retorted

**"They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean."**

**"I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you. They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways. Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old Wizarding families.****What's your surname, anyway?"**

"Don't answer that, once he knows he'll try to be your friend." Dom said

**But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and Harry, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstool.**

**"Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy.**

**Harry was rather quiet as he ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought him (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts).**

**"What's up?" said Hagrid.**

**"Nothing," Harry lied. They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote. When they had left the shop, he said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"**

Harry shook his head again, he couldn't believe there was a time he didn't know what Quidditch was.

**"Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know – not knowin' about Quidditch!"**

**"Don't make me feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pate boy in Madam Malkin's.**

**"—and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in."**

**"Yer not from a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh were – he's grown up knowin' yer name if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles – look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"**

"That was a really good speech." Percy said

**"So what is Quidditch?"**

**"It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like – like soccer in the Muggle world – everyone follows Quidditch – played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls – sorta hard ter explain the rules."**

"At least he tried." Al said, before Louis and Fred could say anything about Hagrid's Quidditch explaning abilities

**"And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"**

**"School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but –"**

**"I bet I'm in Hufflepuff" said Harry gloomily.**

**"Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly. "There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin.****You-Know-Who was one."**

**"Vol-, sorry - You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts."**

**"Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.**

**They bought Harry's school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue- Tying and Much, Much More) by Professor Vindictus Viridian.**

"Sounds like such a good book." Rosie said

"Maybe as a return to school gift." Ron told her, so she can keep those boys away he thought.

**"I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."**

"Smashing idea dad." James said high-fiving his dad

**"I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid. "An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level." Hagrid wouldn't let Harry buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says pewter on yer list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling.**

"That place always gave me the creeps." Victorie said

**While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop).**

**Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked Harry's list again.**

**"Just yer wand left – A yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh a birthday present." Harry felt himself go red.**

**"You don't have to –"**

**"I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at – an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, carry yer mail an' everythin'." Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. He couldn't stop stammering his thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.**

**"Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys. Just Ollivanders left now – only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand." A magic wand . . . this was what Harry had been really looking forward to.**

**The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.**

"Everyone who asks him always gets a different answer, I asked he told me it was Merlin's, my mom said he told her it was once, oh shoot I can't remember the name she told me." Audrey said

**A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.**

**"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair.**

**An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.**

**"Hello," said Harry awkwardly.**

**"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon.****Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work." Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.**

"They are he should blink more often." Lucy said

**"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches.****Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration.**

"He has a really great memory though." Molly said

**Well, I say your father favored it – it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course." Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.**

**"And that's where . . ." Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on Harry's forehead with a long, white finger.**

**"I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly.****"Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands . . . well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do . . . ." He shook his head and then, to Harry's relief, spotted Hagrid.**

**"Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again . . . . Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it.**

**"It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.**

**"Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled." said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.**

**"Er – yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.**

**"But you don't use them." said Mr. Ollivander sharply.**

**"Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.**

"Of course he doesn't." Lily said rolling her eyes

**"Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now - Mr. Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm."**

**"Er – well, I'm right-handed," said Harry**

**"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons.**

"Why don't they use other magical creatures?" Rosie asked

"Different wand makers do, but for some reason those three are the more common cores." Harry answered

**No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand." Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.**

**"That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave." Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr.****Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.**

**"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try –" Harry tried – but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.**

**"No, no – here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy Go on, go on, try it out." Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.**

"How many did you try?" Al asked

"I don't know I lost count after 19." Harry answered

**"Tricky customer, eh. Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere – I wonder, now – yes, why not – unusual combination – holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple." Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers.**

"That's the one." Bill said

**He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks**

"Even your wand knows you're a Gryffindor." Angelina said

**shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls. Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well . . . how curious . . . how very curious . . ." He put Harry's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious . . . curious . . ."**

"What's curious?" Rosie asked

**"Sorry," said Harry, "but what's curious." Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.**

**"I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand. It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather – just one other. It is very curious indeed that you should be destined for this wand when its brother why, its brother gave you that scar." Harry swallowed.**

"Umm what?" James

"Dad, has a wand that was connected to Voldemort, James keep up, and your reading," Lily said, "now keep reading I want to know more."

**"Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember . . . . I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter . . . . After all, He- Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things – terrible, yes, but great." Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much. He paid seven gold Galleons for his wand, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.**

**The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Harry didn't speak at all as they walked down the road;**

"Why must you always brood?" Hermione asked

"It's who I am." Harry answered with a smirk

**he didn't even notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the snowy owl asleep in its cage on Harry's lap. Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; Harry only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder.**

**"Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.**

**He bought Harry a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow.**

**"You all right, Harry. Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.**

**Harry wasn't sure he could explain. He'd just had the best birthday of his life – and yet – he chewed his hamburger, trying to find the words.**

**"Everyone thinks I'm special," he said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander . . . but I don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things. I'm famous and I can't even remember what I'm famous for. I don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry – I mean, the night my parents died." Hagrid leaned across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.**

**"Don' you worry, Harry. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. just be yerself. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard. But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts – I did – still do, 'smatter of fact." Hagrid helped Harry on to the train that would take him back to the Dursleys, then handed him an envelope.**

**"Yer ticket fer Hogwarts, " he said. "First o' September – King's Cross – it's all on yer ticket. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me . . . . See yeh soon, Harry."**

"He didn't tell you how to get on the platform." Groaned Ginny

"I'm okay with it, if he hadn't I wouldn't have met the best family in the world." Harry said

**The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.**

"That's the end of the chapter," James said

"Finally!" With that Hugo and Ron ran into the house.

"So should we wait for them?" Rosie asked

"We should it would be rude if we didn't."

A/N: okay so I'm really sorry I should have posted this much sooner, but school started and my schedule was messed up, and AP U.S History is demanding, and my mom was here from Mex. She wouldn't let me stay in my room. Oh and my other classes are demanding as well…..and well Je ne sais pas, okay don't really have an excuse, I'll try up dating when I can, but Thanksgiving and Christmas you may be able see more updates, but I'll try okay, sorry again to those who have been waiting.


	7. sorry lo siento

**Hey all it's me, Shadowed lives, or Mini i prefer the second. so i know its been MONTHS since my last update, but i am working hard and there is no way I'm giving up on this, but you know I'm a junior in high school, colleges look at this year in-particular, oh and i was directing a play since october, but its over now so i will be less busy, but my finals come up next week before winter break...but i will take my lap top to Mexico and work, i have been typing just not uploading, i might post before i leave (date isn't known). so for all of you who thought i gave up and didn't say anything, have faith and some hope i haven't nor is there a chance that i will.**

**those of you who have been patient with me, here is sort of a review of what i'm thinking for Harry's birthday party, the one the kids want to surprise him with.**

* * *

><p><em>"James I thought we all agreed that it would be just close friends and family!" Rosie whispered to her outrages cousin when she saw the list of people he was sending owls to. <em>

_"Calm down Rose, those are not invitations they were request to different businesses for the different things we agreed we needed." James said innocently to his rule abiding cousin, it's not like we was inviting that many more people, i mean inviting Oliver Wood and his Quiddaitch team wasn't many more, and Victor Krum **is** a friend of his fathers, and trying to get the Wierd Sisters to play at the party was such a long shot he didn't really think they would say yes, so he wasn't really up to anything._

_Poor Rose was so frazzled she didn't even notice the mischievous gleam in James Potters eyes. _

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><p><strong>Alright so that's sort of what I'm thinking will happen, any way i apologize greatly for not updating but look forward to that this holiday season. <strong>

**Yours truly, **

**Mini, or Shadowed lives :)**

**P.S this will be replaced with the actual chapter when its uploaded so...it wont be here for long i promise**


	8. Really sorry

**I'm really sorry guys, I really did wish to finish this. But honestly I really don't have the same motivation as when I started. I'm thinking of doing short drabbles of glimpses into the lives of my favorite people. I'm always thinking of different situations they could have gotten into. Maybe later I'll revisit this story but I don't think I can right now, I've been busy with school, and trying to get some sort of social life into my life. All in all I'm really sorry that I didn't make this into what I wanted or if I disappointed any of you. I'll be taking this story down sometime this week, I'm sorry to any of you who were hoping this was a chapter update**


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